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Mini Archie’s February Furtle Around The Blogosphere

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Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! This will be a quick post as I’m in the midst of a destash on Instagram  so am a little (lot) square eyed and shattered! I’ve finished two pairs of socks this month, a pink pair: Yarn is  WYS ‘Pink Flamingo’ (845) And a blue pair: Yarn is  WYS ‘Blue Lagoon’ (831) And I’ve started the next pair, a yarn I knitted up last year but which I loved so am knitting again (just for a different pair of feet): Yarn is  WYS ‘Wood Pigeon’ (864) Rose Archie’s white crocus are looking lovely, especially when (as not shown in this photo) the sun catches them: Giant crocus! Linking up to the February Furtle  If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and
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Pink Flamingo

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Another finish has been fettled! These are the first (of three) pairs for Mam and are West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Pink Flamingo’ (845) . They’re apparently made up of three pink stripes and one white but, well, best get the magnifying glass and bright lights out to find the third pink!  Unsurprisingly enough, Mini Archie has his eye on the leftovers *sighs*  I finks I’d look spiffing wif pink feets *modest face*
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Mini Archie’s January Furtle Around The Blogosphere

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Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello, and welcome to the first Furtle of 2024! I’ve started the year off well and have finished two pairs of socks, both of which were started last year. The first were this pair: Yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Wood Pigeon’ (864) And then I circled back to this pair, which were started before the yarn for the pair above arrived, and finished them too: Yarn is by Olann   I’m making progress with the next sock. Believe it or not, there are two different pinks in that wide stripe but I think someone either forgot to add enough dye to the medium pink or added too much to the light pink as they’re nigh on the same. If you look very closely, you can just about see a hint of there being two stripes between the dark pink and the next white stripe rather than one broad medium pink stripe: Yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Pink Flamingo’ (845)   A couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to discover that we in the U.K. can once a
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Stop The (Wood) Pigeon!

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I have my first finish of the year, hooray! To be fair, I had almost finished the first sock before the year started so just had a toe and the second sock to knit. These are West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Wood Pigeon’ (864)  and, as always with WYS yarn, have knitted up beautifully. Mini Archie has me hard at work on the next pair already: A hat? How kind. I was hoping for some socks for mine poor frozzed feets though…
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Fettle Those Finishes! 2024

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Hello, and welcome to the third full year of  Fettle Those Finishes!   The link up is for the whole year so I’ll leave it open until 29th February to give you chance to think about and assemble your list - it’s not something to rush into and can take quite a while unless you’re like me and there’s a tendency to be able to copy and paste from the previous list to populate the new one and only need minor tweaks *sighs*  Adding stuff to your list (or taking things off if you’ve changed your mind about a project) through the year is perfectly acceptable. Encouraged, in fact, as there’s no point in sticking with something you no longer love/need just out of habit. Just make sure anything added is added before you finish it. There’ll be a progress link up on 1st July (which I also tend to use as an opportunity to write a new list) and I’ll remind you in the June  Furtle . The rules Be kind. Be encouraging. Be honest. Don’t put things on your list you’d finished before the list was written, t
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Fettle Those Finishes! End Of Year Reports

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It’s time to tie up Fettle Those Finishes! 2023 and for us all to write a report about our progress this year. I’ll start us off, shall I? Here’s list I and list II and my progress report from July, plus my  end of year report from 2022 . At the start of the year, I sorted out my sock knitting records and now they’re all transcribed onto a card for each person (or more than one card if a lot of socks have been knitted, I think I have three!) and the system is working very well, much better than the pile of paper I had previously. Read about the knitting record cards here Fettling Score = 1 Throughout the year, I’ve knitted twelve pairs of socks for other people (well, thirteen but one wasn’t on the list *shakes head*): Fettling Score = 13 In July, I had 60 socks-in-waiting in the sock lucky dip album (yes, it’s a thing) and I’m ending the year with 56 despite having knitted ten pairs for me, which means a few have been added in the last six months (not always by me, honest!) so I ne
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Mini Archie’s December Furtle Around The Blogosphere

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Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello and welcome to our final furtle of the year! This is going to be quick as I’ve got my end of year report to write for my Fettling List and the 2024 Fettling post to write as well as sorting my own list *gulps* This month, I have finished two pairs of socks: Read about these socks here Read about these socks here And I’ve started another pair: Yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Wood Pigeon’ (864) Mini Archie has enjoyed the festive season: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Linking up to the December Furtle  If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a
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Tricky Socks

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I love this sock yarn (Opal ‘Weather Peak’ (11155)) but it was a bit of a sod to find the right starting point for the second sock so that it would match the first one - I ended up winding off quite a bit to find it and even then I wasn’t sure I was right until I was at the heel. I probably could have got away with not even attempting to match them, but I’m glad I did. It was well worth the effort, though, and I think the leftovers will work well in a future pair of scrappy socks.  I think I’m going to have a sort out of the leftovers box soon and check I’m happy with all the ‘kits’ I assembled in 2022 and place any new leftovers into new kits/incorporate them into existing ones. This will help me write my 2024 Fettling List once I’ve sorted my end of year report. The link for the end of year Fettle Those Finishes reports will open on 31st December, as will the (separate) December Furtle. Then the link for the 2024 Fettle Those Finishes will open on 1st January. I’ll try to give you lo
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Woodland Socks

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Surprise, I’ve knitted another pair of socks! They’re incredibly difficult to photograph: I took these photos (in the same room) within seconds of each other but on different backgrounds and I’m not convinced the colours are quite right in any of them! The dark sections are a mix of blue and green which is, I think, why they tend to look green or blue but not a mix of both. They’re really pretty when you see them in person. The yarn is West Yorkshire Spinners ‘Woodland Awakening’ (1025) which is part of the collaboration they did with Zandra Rhodes and watching where each colour was going to land made them quick to knit as there was always another colour coming up in a few stitches. It won’t surprise you that I’ve already made a start on the next pair: Yarn is Opal 11155 ‘Weather Peak’ I has been telled in no uncertain terms to vacate mine spiffing hooded sleeping bag. It must be so it can be finished *confident face*
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Mini Archie’s November Furtle Around The Blogosphere

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  Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something This month has been another sock month. I’ve knitted this pair using the leftovers from two balls (a friend bought both of us a ball of this WYS Brightside and she gave me her leftovers so I could make another pair): Yarn is WYS Brightside (874) And this pair, which are the one hundredth pair I’ve knitted: Yarns are all from  Made By Penguins , five minis (she has lots for sale and they’re perfect for socks) and a leftover from a previous pair I’ve also knitted the first sock in pair one hundred and one: Yarn is WYS Woodland Awakening (1025), one of the collection by Zandra Rhodes Mini Archie has been watching all of this and wondering why none of it seems to be for him.  No, I isn’t practicing mine knitting pattern poses, I is watching for Pirates *dignified face* Linking up to the November Furtle  If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosa
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A (Sock) Century!

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I recently realised that I was approaching my one hundredth pair of socks and Mr Random Number Generator thrilled me by choosing a ‘kit’ from my Sock Lucky Dip album which consisted entirely of yarn from  Made By Penguins . I started with these: And after not very much knitting at all (we all know that stripes go faster), I had these: Usually, I make socks which match but for these I fancied stripy and co-ordinated but not matching, just for something different. I started by choosing two cuff colours and decided that they would swap over for the toes. I also decided that I’d use one of the six yarns for both heels and that I’d do regular (ten round) stripes. I also decided that I wouldn’t weave in the ends as I knitted as I’m not keen on the uneven stitches I get as a result so I thought I’d see how tedious darning in all the ends afterwards was. I was pleasantly surprised and found it very satisfying, which bodes well for future scrappy socks. I did my usual diagonal path, darning the